Method and apparatus for real-time tv advertisement auction in a tv-over-ip environment

ABSTRACT

A system for real time auctioning of advertising timeslots for live TV transmission over IP networks incorates settop boxes interconnected to a searver to provide real time viewing statistics to an advertising management system which also receives subscriber information from a subscriber management system which also management system determines demographics responsive to the subscriber information and viewing statistics and publishes advertising timeslot information and the determined demongraphics. A management terminal is employed for creating user accounts, providing access information to users, inspecting and approving advertisements responsive to input the advertisements from the users. Bid parameters are defined using the management terminal and the publication by the system to the users is responsive to the bid parameters. User terminals are provided for uploading advertisements to the advertising management system and the advertising management system further assigns unique identification to the uploaded advertisements. The user terminals upload advertising parameters, receive the published time slots and demographics and submit bids to the advertising management system. The advertising management system receives the bids and inserts predefined advertisements responsive to a winning bid.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates generally to the field of TV over IP services andmore particularly to distribution of live TV programming in a TV-Over IPenvironment and employing the data available to create and presentreal-time auctioning of advertising blocks based on immediate viewerdata detection.

2. Related Art

Providing live TV broadcast through broadband IP networks has become aviable approach for high quality TV services. Due to the interactivenature of the IP network, user channel viewing statistics can becollected in real-time fashion.

Such a system typically consist of head-ends that sends encoded digitalTV signals into the IP network as multicast streams, Set-Top-Boxes (STB)on the users'premises connecting to TV sets. At any given time, the STBscan select one of the multicast streams and decode the digital signalsand send TV signals to an attached TV set.

It is therefore desirable to collect the current statistics of channelviewing available through the STB, formulate the data by demographic orother indicia and present the data substantially real-time toadvertising contacts, provide support functions for auctions ofadvertising time blocks on a substantially real time basis for bid bythe advertisers based on the statistics, and insert advertising mediainto the transmission stream based on the winning bid.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a system for real time auctioning ofadvertising timeslots for live TV transmission over IP networks. Thesystem incorporates settop boxes interconnected to a server to providereal time viewing statistics to an advertising management system whichalso recieves subscriber information from a subscriber managementsystem. The advertising management system determines demographicsresponsive to the subscriber information and viewing statistics andpublishes advertising timeslot information and the determineddemographics. A management terminal is employed for creating useraccounts and providing access information to users. The managementterminal also is employed for inspecting and approving advertisementsresponsive to input of said advertisements from said users. Bidparameters are defined using the management terminal and the publicationby the system to the users is responsive to the bid parameters. Userterminals are provided for uploading advertisements to the advertisingmanagement system and the advertising management system further assignsunique identification to the uploaded advertisements. The user terminalsupload advertising parameters, receive the published time slots anddemographics and submit bids to the advertising management system. Theadvertising management system recieves the bids and inserts predefinedadvertisements responsive to a winning bid.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other features and advantages of the present invention will bebetter understood by reference to the following detailed descriptionwhen considered in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the elements of network system formulti-media streaming in which the present invention is employed;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the elements of the AdvertisementManagement System (AMS);

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of the entry flow for advertising data into theAMS; and,

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of the data flow of the bidding process anddistribution of advertising data to the Media Distribution System.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 shows a network system incorporating the elements of the presentinvention. On set top box (STB) 10, a software module 12 is employed todetect the current TV channel or channels (in case ofPicture-in-Picture, or a STB receives and decodes multiple channels atthe same time), as well as predetermined statistics such as channelchange frequencies and timing. The data is sent over network connection14 to a collection server 16 on the network, in a real-time fashion withconfigurable intervals.

A collection server can be a stand-alone server or a software modulerunning on a machine that also runs other applications. The collectionserver receives channel viewing data from STBs on the network. For largedeployment, a system incorporating the present invention employs anumber of collection servers forming a hierarchy. The data is thenfunneled to a central server 18.

A security system 20 is employed to ensure the authenticity of the STBmessages received by the collection server. An exemplary securityapproach is comparable to that defined in copending patent applicationSsr. No. ______ carrying attorney docket no. U001 100248 and entitledMethods and Apparatus for Message Security in an IPTV Environment havinga common assignee with the present application, the disclosure of whichis incorporated herein by reference. Security system 20 authenticates anSTB and issues tokens for the STB to access other components of the IPTVenvironment whereby the messages from this STB to the collection serverare authenticated by the system.

The central server records statistical data for all channels presentedto viewers over the network. The viewing statistics are analyzed inconjunction with a subscriber management system 22. As shown in FIG. 2,the viewing statistics are provided from the server to AdvertisingManagement System 24 with input form the subscriber management system toextract user demographics 40. The central server formulates the data toadd demographic information to the channel viewing statistics 42. Theformulated data is sent to an auction software package 44 in theadvertising management system. The auction software displays the channelstatistics, the current programs running on the channels, and theadvertising time slots available on the channels as received from aManagement terminal 28 to a plurality of user terminals 26 connected tothe network. A user interface, either as a local application or aweb-based application, is implemented on the terminals allowing a bidderto view all the available viewing statistic data, price, etc., and makeinputs for bids on open advertising time slots.

The advertisement management system is incorporated in the network.Through interactive operation on the management terminal an operatorcreates an account for a potential advertiser 302, sets the accountparameters 304, such as username and password, payment relatedinformation, etc. as shown in FIG. 3. Potential advertisers upload theirads 306, and set parameters 308 such as categories, excluded TV programsor type of programs, excluded time slots, etc. through the advertisementmanagement system. Unique IDs are assigned to the ads 310 foridentification to media distribution system 30.

The user interfaces and the management terminal include a videosubsystem and are employed for inspecting and approving the ads 312 foruse in the network by the operator. The management terminal interfacealso allows the operator to add and remove ad time slots 314, set thebidding time windows 316, det starting price 318, buy-out price 320, andother applicable parameters.

As shown in FIG. 4, the Advertisement Management system correlates theadd information with corresponding program information to provide asorted view 402 of available advertising slots consistent with the adcriteria allowing the users to easily identify available slots for theirads. During the bidding window, users enter bids for the available timeslots 404 with updated bids appearing 406 on all interested usersterminals. The high bidder at the predetermined bid close for the adslot will secure that slot 408 and define the selected ad through the IDnumber to the system 410. The Advertisement Management System will thetransmit 412 the previoulsy entered advertisement corresponding to thatID through the network to Media Distribution System 30 which will insertthe advertisement into the timeslot in the multicast programming 414.Actual advertisement insertion will be implemented by an insertionengine and MPEG-2 splicer, which are commercially available productsknow to those skilled in the art. A backend Operation Support System(OSS) 32, shown in FIG. 1, keeps track of all transactions, users, andhandles all billing operations.

Having now described the invention in detail as required by the patentstautes, those skilled in the art will recognize modifications andsubstitutions to the specific embodiments disclosed herein. Suchmodifications are within the scope and intent of the present inventionas defined in the following claims.

1. A system for real time television advertisement auction comprising:settop boxes interconnected to a server to provide real time viewingstatistics; an advertising management system receiving viewingstatistics from the server and subscriber information from a subscribermanagement system and having means for demographics determinationresponsive to the subscriber information and viewing statistics; meansfor publishing advertising timeslot inforation and determineddemographics; means for reciving bids responsive to the publishedinformation; means for inserting predefined advertisements responsive toa winning bid.
 2. A system as defined in claim 1 further comprising amanagement terminal having means for creating user accounts andproviding access information to users; means for inspecting andapproving advertisements responsive to input of said advertisements fromsaid users; and, means for defining bid parameters, said publishingmeans responsive to the bid parameters.
 3. A system as defined in claim2 wherein the means for defining bid parameters includes means fordefining advertising time slots.
 4. A system as defined in claim 2wherein the means for defining bid parameters includes means fordefining bid windows.
 5. A system as defined in claim 2 wherein themeans for defining bid parameters includes means for defining startingprice.
 6. A system as defined in claim 2 wherein the means for definingbid parameters includes means for defining buyout price.
 7. A system asdefined in claim 2 further comprising user terminals having means foruploading advertisements to the advertising management system, the meansfor inspecting and approving responsive to said uploading means and theadvertising management system further including means for assigningunique identification to the uploaded advertisements; means foruploading advertising parameters; means for receiving output of thepublishing means; and, means for submitting bids to the receiving means.8. A sytem as defined in claim 7 wherein the advertising managementsystem further includes means for notifying the winning bidder and theuser terminal further includes means for submitting an advertisementidentification responsive to a winning bit notification, the insertingmeans responsive to the advertisement identification and providing anoutput to a media distribution system for insertion of the advertisementcorresponding to the advertisement identification.
 9. A system asdefined in claim 1 further comprising security means for verification ofauthenticity of settop box viewing statistics.
 10. A method for realtime television advertisement auction comprising the steps of:interconnecting settop boxes to a server to provide real time viewingstatistics; receiving viewing statistics from the server and subscriberinformation from a subscriber management system; determiningdemographics responsive to the subscriber information and viewingstatistics; publishing advertising timeslot information and determineddemographics; receiving bids responsive to the published information;inserting predefined advertisements responsive to a winning bid.
 11. Amethod as defined in claim 10 further comprising the preliminary stepsof: creating user accounts and providing access information to users;inspecting and approving advertisements responsive to input of saidadvertisements from said users; and, defining bid parameters, the stepof publishing being responsive to the bid parameters.
 12. A method asdefined in claim 11 wherein the step of defining bid parameters includesdefining advertising time slots.
 13. A method as defined in claim 11wherein the step of defining bid parameters includes defining bidwindows.
 14. A method as defined in claim 11 wherein the step ofdefining bid parameters includes defining starting price.
 15. A methodas defined in claim 11 wherein the step of defining bid parametersincludes defining buyout price.
 16. A method as defined in claim 11wherein user terminasls accomplish further steps of: uploadingadvertisements to the advertising management system, the means forinspecting and approving responsive to said uploading means and theadvertising management system further including means for assigningunique identification to the uploaded advertisements; uploadingadvertising parameters; receiving output of the publishing means; and,submitting bids to the receiving means.
 17. A method as defined in claim16 further including the step of notifying the winning bidder and theuser terminal further accomplishes the step of submitting anadvertisement indentification responsive to a winning bit notification,the step of inserting being responsive to the advertisementidentification and providing an output to a media distribution systemfor insertion of the advertisement corresponding to the advertisementidentification.
 18. A system as defined in claim 10 further comprisingthe step of verifying authenticity of settop box viewing statistics.